50
49
Cindy pulled herself up onto her knees and knees and took a moment to catch her breath. The pain in her chest and the fire in her body made it difficult. She managed to stand and shuffle her way to a street light, where she leaned against it.
40
39
Cindy tried to gulp and found her throat dry. She glanced around, hoping that anyone in the crowd around her would help her in her distress. She saw movement high up in one of the nearby roofs. Miles was waving his hand, he had a bag in his other hand. He rolled the bag, made sure there was no air inside, tied it, then threw it her way.
It went a little wide off to the side, but once it was close enough, Cindy zipped it to her. She opened the bag - a sandwich and a sports drink. She waved to Miles in thanks. Screwball's drone was still nearby, still counting down. Cindy unwrapped the sandwich and took a large bit that would unhinge the jaw of a normal person. In doing so, Cindy smirked seeing the people watching her become horrified.
18
17
Nothing of the sandwich remained, and Cindy twisted the neck of the sports drink open. Opening her mouth wide, she chugged and chugged as the drink inside the bottle drained with every audible gulp. The people around her watched on in fascination and awe once again.
One gulp,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Cindy exhaled, and breathed.
Her body was already turning the calories from the sandwich and the sports drink into energy, which was already working to ease her body. The fires lessened, the pain receding into a ache, with every breath Cindy was finally able to get her thoughts back together -
She was becoming alive again.
5
4
3
2
1
"Aaaand… we're back ladies and gentlemen!" Screwball's nails-on-a-chalkboard voice burst out again, "How'ya feeling, Charlotte? Got enough fuel in ya to do one more show?"
Cindy shook her head, "You're not Screwball."
"Oh, but I am, Charlotte!"
"You're not. The original Spiderman stopped Screwball when her antics went too far. I know, I saw the stream when it happened. Last I heard, she was sent into rehab during her time in prison. So who are you?"
"Screwball, sweet honey Charlotte."
"...Sure."
Screwball's done encroached on Cindy, who leaned back, "There is always going to be a screwball, Charlotte. Might as well have fun with it."
Screwball's drone zoomed back, "Now, then! Ready to continue the show, Charlotte?"
Cindy glanced at Miles once catching him waving to her again.
He held up his phone, pointed to it,
A thumbs up,
Then a thumb over his shoulder.
He leapt and zipped away.
Cindy looked back at Screwball's drone. She suspected that Miles had found some sort of way to find where this Screwball was. Given how both he and Peter were tech heads, it wasn't that far fetched to believe. All Cindy needed to do was keep Screwball busy until Miles found her, but, thinking about it now, perhaps there was a chance that she saw him go off. Cindy had to hope that she didn't.
"What have you got planned now?" Cindy said.
Screwball giggled with barely contained glee, which made it not heard to imagine her rubbing her hands together like a cartoon villain, "Glad you asked, Charlotte! You're a fast gal, huh? Well, this part of the show should be easier for you. Mmm… maybe."
Cindy crossed her arms, wanting this whole ordeal to be done and over with already, "On with it."
"Ooo… a little feisty, now, are you, Charlotte? Well…"
A nearby taxi's engine roared to life and its wheels squealed before it suddenly sped off screaming down the street.
"Better stop the taxi, Charlotte. Don't let it go too fast now! Wink wink, nudge nudge."
Cindy's shoulders dropped and her head tilted back as a groan burst out of her throat. She sharply exhaled before zipping herself up onto the roofs and breaking off.
Chasing the taxi, Cindy saw it make close calls, breaking its side mirrors when making too many close calls, screaming around corners, weaving in and out of traffic, threading needles that scratched other cars, bumping over sidewalks and curbs.
Even though Cindy had just eaten and recovered enough to not be debilitated, she wasn't in top condition to go as fast as she could. If she was, she would have gotten to the taxi already; she was already starting to feel the coals in her body starting to glow warm again.
Another scream around a corner, a little too wide, causing it to slow - Cindy took the opportunity. She zipped to it with her normal webs and touched down on the roof. Remembering how Miles stopped the car when stopping the heist, Cindy flipped back, shooting a webline to the taxi's bumper before making more with her fingers, connecting to the taxi's trunk. She landed and made two more lines on the road.
She cried out as her arm trembled to stay curled as the taxi's engine roared to high hell until it stalled and stopped completely. Cindy groaned loudly as she let her arms go limp.
The thumping at the taxi's doors got her attention,
She went around and by the passengers' and driver's expressions and palms hitting the window, they couldn't open the doors.
Zip,
Tug,
The doors flew,
And the people inside scrambled out.
"Thank you, thank you, Spidergirl!" One of the passengers said.
"I don't know what went wrong," The driver said, "I tried everything to get it to stop but nothing worked, everything was locked up."
"Your taxi electric?" Cindy asked.
"Some digital stuff but not -"
Tires screeched in the distance, their shrill noise piercing at the stop light at the end of the road.
"Go!" The driver said, "Go!"
Cindy had already zipped away before he even finished.
"Gotta go fast, Charlotte!" Screwball chimed in, "Those weasels will pop if they start riding the wind!"
Cindy thought back to the former Screwball. While her last show was the one that got her arrested, she didn't behave that way outright from the beginning. Her fans, being criminals, being the ones to cause the violence and any damage. Whoever this new Screwball was, there was clearing something wrong with her for her to go to this extreme already.
Skipping and launching herself over different pieces of the environment,
Running over the roofs,
Cindy was starting to feel the beginnings of fatigue once again. Regular zipping, Cindy felt, wouldn't be enough to consistently keep the speed she needed. Thinking of Peter's and Miles's speed, a good portion of their acceleration came from their swinging. If she could do the same, this whole thing would be easier. Thinking about it, however, Cindy felt that cold shiver go through her again and shook her head. She would rather run than do that. But she couldn't rely on her speed webs either for the tubing in her arms were still somewhat raw. Thinking about it, however, she had unconsciously switched to the speed webs, finding out when she zipped to get more speed.
That was when inspiration struck her.
The taxi screeched around another corner, gaining the distance quickly. Cindy glanced off to the side, gauging that the taxi was already three to four houses away already. To catch up, she would have to go across. She zipped with one hand, the explosive force of the webbing ejecting out making the tubing sore. She tugged, then at that moment, she reeled the line for a moment, causing her to gain a profound burst of speed that made her clear the three,four buildings that hid the taxi from view.
Seeing her gain so much ground this fast was astonishing to Cindy, she had done something like this when escaping from Miles and Peter before when she was the Imposter. But it was more so in a way to keep herself in the air as a substitute to swinging. This alone was something else, something unique only to her. She blinked, bringing herself back to the situation at hand. Having caught up, she zipped to a roof ahead of the taxi and skipped off its ledge. As she dropped, as the taxi was quickly approaching her, she zipped with the same burst-reeling method as before and landed on it with a loud thump.
She scrambled to the hood and made weblines to nearby roofs. She leaned back, pressing her feet into the hood and forcing as much exertion into it as much as she could. The taxi tilted forward, raising its rear wheels into the air. The front tires squealed, puffing smoke as the engine roared. Soon, the taxi fell back to the ground in totality, no longer having any momentum to move it forward.
She hopped down and nearly stumbled,
She pulled open the doors with her webs.
"Oh my god, thank you!"
Cindy froze.
The passenger in the taxi was Uncle Roy.
Roy took a few deep breaths to regain his composure then looked over at Cindy to thank her again. He paused, stared, then knit his brows and could only open his mouth before Screwball's voice cut through the tension.
"Boo! Nice try, Spiderman! But bubbly ol' me is in a different hideout. And as punishment -"
The last taxi shot off down the road nearby.
"A new condition for Charlotte! What'cha gonna do, Charlotte! If the cab goes too fast or too slow - BA-BOOM!"
Cindy clicked her tongue and zipped away, the irony being that she was silently thanking the circumstance so that she could leave before Roy could say anymore, prevent him from looking at her anymore than necessary. Because of that, Cindy wasn't so confident in her web-half-mask covering her face anymore, and pulled her scarf up to cover her mouth.
Using this new technique she had discovered, she zipped to get herself bursts of speed that helped her clear long distances and up and over ledges of rooftops. No longer needing to use so much exertion from her body anymore helped bring her away from exhaustion, and although the web tubing in her arms were still sore she was able to keep it in check with this method and prevent it from getting worse.
Zipping,
Leaping off,
She caught up to the taxi and it swerved out of the way at the last second when trying to zip to it. The cab sped up as Cindy committed and flung herself to the ground at a sharp angle. Seeing the ground becoming larger, she held her breath. She snapped her arms out and bent them as she hit the ground. She grit her teeth feeling the pain in her right arm. She felt herself quickly tilting from the momentum and cried out when she kicked her legs and shoved her arms with great exertion, nearly on the verge of pulling her muscles.
She sprang out like a bullet down the street.
The taxi made a turn just as she was about to catch up.
She used her speed webs to zip to the taxi with her left arm -
The taxi swerved,
She zipped with her right arm and there was a heavy thunk! of metal as it latched onto the roof of the taxi. She tugged and did the burst method of reeling as her eyes stared hard into the apartment she was about to crash into. The moment her direction changed, her feet barely touched one of the windows.
She touched down, and through the back window Cindy thought she recognized the child in the back seat before she extended her arm to web the road before remembering what Screwball said. She was then shaken out of her thoughts when the taxi turned another corner, making her wave her arm out of instinct despite her adhesive touch making her stay on.
She moved to the door of the driver's seat and knocked on the window, which the driver soon rolled down.
"How fast is it going right now?!" Cindy yelled.
"If it goes more than eighty or below forty we're done for!" The driver said, "We just reached seventy two!"
Cindy saw the speedometer and saw that it was now seventy three, seventy four.
Cindy didn't know what to do, she just acted, barely remembering Miles's words about improvising.
"Hang on!" Cindy said before shooting a line to a building and attaching it to the driver, slinging him out of the taxi.
She swiftly went to the passengers and paused once realizing that the passengers in the back seats were Harris Porter and his daughter, Marie. Cindy knocked on the window and Harris rolled his window down.
"I gotta web you guys out!" Cindy said.
"My daughter first!" Harris offered.
Cindy was about to agree before she hesitated.
"No, both of you!" She said, "The car is still gonna put people in danger, hurry!"
Harris grabbed Marie and protectively wrapped his arms around her as Cindy webbed a line to street light they were passing before quickly attaching it to them. The last thing she saw of Marie was her giving her a long look at her before both of them flew out of the taxi. For a moment the thought of Marie somehow finding out who Cindy was underneath her attire was shaken out of her once the taxi kicked into high gear once again.
Her senses went off.
She looked through the window and saw the speedometer.
Eighty,
Eight one -
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The sound was coming from underneath the taxi.
Cindy looked up and finally realized where she was - Times Square. Her heart sank.
The sounds slowly began to stretch,
And all movement crawl.
The taxi hit the curb, people running or throwing themselves out of the way, and hitting it at this speed caused it to jump up with the front wheels and skip off the ground with the back wheels. It tilted back in the air, causing the back bumper to touch the ground first before the wheels, making it what caused it to turn to its side. Cindy scrambled to the roof of the car. The taxi slammed on its side, its metal screaming in her ears. There, with the underside exposed, Cindy saw the bomb.
A black square thing with dark red wires in maddening tangles all over it.
She webbed it, then with a tug threw it up into the sky.
Tumbling into the air, Cindy waited until it reached its peak, at a height that would be harmless for the surrounding civilians, before shooting a speed web projectile at it, causing it to explode.
Unbeknownst to everyone, even Cindy, there were tiny pieces of red liquid that dissolved with a hiss the moment they touched the ground. One of them landed near Cindy and its tiny puddle inched towards her. When near, a tiny red tentacle reached out for Cindy's shoe.
It touched her only for a second before sharply flinching as though it were screaming.
Cindy glanced around, her senses on high alert.
But she saw nothing.
She scanned her surroundings one more time before falling to her knees. She fell back, her limbs spread out.
She took a deep breath,
And let out a tired groan.
She heard a civilian approach her, "Hey Spidergirl, you doing okay?"
"Taking a breather while I can." She answered, her voice entirely flat and blunt hearing someone call her Spidergirl.
A moment later, she heard the sound of webs and looked to the side and saw Miles touchdown.
"You okay, Spiderwoman?" He reached out a hand.
Cindy took it and Miles pulled to help her up, "Peachy. Just peachy."
"Honestly, you're doing way more better than me when I first started."
"Don't feel like it."
"To be fair, I didn't have to deal with the stuff you went through. Sorry about earlier. I tried to track her down, but whoever this new Screwball is, she is smarter than the last one."
Cindy's head perked up, "Speak of the devil…"
Screwball's drone appeared.
"O-mai-god, Charlotte!" Cindy shoved Screwball's drone away for being so close, "You're a bonafide hero! People in the chat were even taking bets on whether or not you needed help. To think you did all of that by yourself - you're growing up as fast as you can go, Charlotte!"
Cindy shot the drone with a light webshot, only making the drone recoil.
"Ooo! Even after all of that, you still got some fire in you, Charlotte! Well, don't worry. You can put that fire out for now. That's the show for today. Hope to see you do more fantastic things, Charlotte, cuz your fans have -"
The drone suddenly turned around in sheer silence.
Hearing Screwball stop talking about once made Cindy's and Miles's heads recoil.
"...The Party Crashers are here." Screwball said, her tone now more stern which was at odds with her bubblegum voice.
"...Party -?" Was all Cindy was able to see before the drone sped away.
Her senses screamed -
She kicked Miles, kicking off of him at the same time, as the projectiles barely grazed the two of them. Cindy had barely recovered from her roll when she spotted a black blur out of the corner of her eye; Miles had only just landed on his feet when he twisted his body to dodge more projectiles. Cindy cried out when the blow against her threw her into Miles. Their senses made them remove themselves from each other when ever more projectiles flew their way.
There was a pause, allowing them both to breathe.
Cindy saw the thing that had struck her -
A man in what looked to be power armor of some kind. It was slim but the plating made it seem not as sleek, giving an implication as though they were rushed. She recognized the make - the suits from when Peter was ambushed. They were still forming fitting as evidenced from the under armor visible underneath the plating. The red lights were gone, replaced by some sort of dull finish on the plating. But to keep the red, a large 'S' was on the chest.
Another approached,
More in the distance, staying back, holding large cumbersome rifles in their hands.
Something blue on the ground caught her attention - something that looked like a dart embedded into the concrete. She remembered seeing the dart projectiles the previous suits had used to debilitate Peter before. This time, however, they have yet to open.
"Oh boy…" Miles said, preparing himself.
Cindy could only agree by clicking her tongue.
Peter had only gotten out of the facility of the Emily-May Foundation when he had gotten the news from Mary-Jane. He had a feeling something was wrong, but it sounded like Cindy needed some space and time alone.
When he had learned that Screwball was back and had a livestream up, he was immediately relieved that it wasn't the original Screwball but the relief became worry once realizing that this one was endangering citizens on the get-go already. He was about to go suit up when Screwball called out Miles for trying to interfere and as a result made Cindy's challenge more difficult.
He suited up anyway and remained on stand by as he could only watch. Watch Cindy on the livestream tire herself out - on her first day out of the hospital. Even though Cindy was capable, it was her inexperience that was worrying to him. This became evident when she collapsed on the ground in exhaustion when completing Screwball's first challenge. When she did the second challenge of stopping and saving the taxi's and the people in them, he noted how Cindy was utilizing her zipping.
He had looked at his web shooters then, thinking about the possibility.
Seeing the Slayers suits again, however, Peter was trying to make his way to Times Square as quickly as he could. He had just gotten into an air current, utilizing his web-wings when his senses went off.
He looked,
He saw a person in a silver suit of hi-tech armor flying to him on a purple aircraft he was standing on. His senses went off again as he was thinking of the best course of action when a rocket shot from the aircraft.
Why did this chapter take a week? Basically, because this was an exercise to see how well I'd do by writing a chapter a day, then every other day, I kept pushing myself to write rather than write naturally. As a result, I kept feeling that the writing quality was steadily going down. It got to a point where I had to get away from the story and unwind, hence the week long pause.
I'm not abandoning the story, if there was any worry of that. But I will take two more days off before going back to the regular writing schedule. I have thought about planning the chapters to make the story as a whole to be more concise and less fattening, if that's the right word. But I have had past experience with that and felt as though I had written the entire story by the time I finish an outline - the notes and summaries just end up being soooo long that I should just dictate that time and energy into writing. Through the current method of writing I have now, this Fic is the longest one I've ever written so far as well as the most on-course.
What does that mean?
The next few chapters are when things are going to heat up. Whereas the other fics on my profile I eventually lost interest because I was taking too long writing and never got to Rice of the meal so much as the meat and potatoes.
Sorry, and thank you for being patient.